International Burglar Gang Of Colombians Busted In Bengaluru

BENGALURU: Police today claimed to have busted an international gang of burglars with the arrest of five Colombian nationals, including a woman, who targeted homes, including that of a former Chief Secretary. 950 grams of gold ornaments, foreign currencies, expensive watches, pens and two cars were seized from them, Commissioner of Police T Suneel Kumar said.

The gang had purchased one of the cars from an online car purchase firm, which helped police track them, he said, adding CCTV footage enabled police to identify and then arrest them. The gang members are Jose Edwardo (40), Gustavo Adolfo (47), Yair Alberto (45), Eduard Alexis (38) and a woman, Kimberly Jhoarya (30). They were involved in at least six cases of burglary in posh localities like Jayanagar, JP Nagar, Sadashivanagar and HSR Layout, he said. They also targetted the residence of former Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee, he said.

Explaining their modus operandi, Mr. Kumar said the gang used Google maps to track posh localities and look for houses which were not lit at night and where there were no vehicles, do a recce and then target residences. While Jose is a high school graduate, Gustavo has done his MBA and Yair was a welder by profession. Edwards has completed a food handling course and Kimberly could not finish a business technology course, the Commissioner said.

Both Jose and Gustavo have criminal backgrounds, he said. Jose was jailed for five months in Colombia for possessing a pistol. He had sneaked into India through Nepal and got acquainted with an African national here. Gustavo was convicted for killing a police officers son and was jailed for 16 years in his country, Mr. Kumar said. The gang chose Bengaluru because it has emerged as a global city, the commissioner said, adding all of them were staying at a serviced apartment in the city.